...Michael Kaplan, President

Yes, I am a former "Most Valued Professional" .... or does it mean Most Vociferous Punk? :-) They were both probably true. I used to spend a lot of time in the Compuserve MSACCESS forum when Microsoft sponsored it, and I still spend a lot of time in the Access/VB newsgroups. But I was doing a lot of consulting work for Microsoft and I had someone from PSS complain about what they thought was a potential NDA violation one time too many. So I had to choose between the paid Microsoft work or the unpaid MVP work. I quit being an MVP that very day! To my knowledge, I am the first person to ever successfully resign (Mike Gunderloy had tried previously but gave up). I like the sound of "former MVP" much better, anyway, sounds like "fallen angel" or somesuch!

In various minor ways, I contributed to some excellent books on VB, VBA and Access (95, 97 and 2000). Some less than others. :-) All are worth checking out:

• Internationalization with Visual Basic
• Advanced Visual Basic 6 : Power Techniques for Everyday Programs
• Access 2000 Developer's Handbook, Volume 1 (Desktop)
• Access 2000 Developer's Handbook, Volume 2 (Enterprise)
• VB Language Developer's Handbook
• Access 97 Developer's Handbook
• VBA Developer's Handbook
• Microsoft Access 95 How-To...
• Microsoft Access 95 Developer's Handbook
• Access and SQL Server Developer's Handbook

• Access/VB/SQL Advisor
• Advisor Expert: Microsoft SQL Server
• Advisor Expert: Visual Basic Web Development
• Component Advisor
• Microsoft
• Microsoft Office and VBA Developer
• Microsoft SQL Server
• MSDN Magazine
• MultiLingual Computing
• Pinnacle's ActiveWeb Developer
• Pinnacle's Smart Access
• Pinnacle's Visual Basic Developer
• Pinnacle's XML Developer
• Visual Basic Programmer's Journal

You may also find something useful in a variety of articles I have posted to Usenet.

One frequently asked question has been how do you pronounce "Trigeminal" anyway? See the top of this very page for that tidbit!

Okay, the next frequently asked question would be what does "Trigeminal" mean? The trigeminal nerve is a nerve in the face. It handles sensation to the forehead, the cheek, and the jaw. In a past life I worked in a neurologist's office, and my first few development contracts were software programs for them and other practices. I just kind of went with something medical. It makes for an interesting conversation piece now. Besides, the forehead, cheek, and jaw are often involved in software development--headaches, humor, and clenched teeth.

Yet another question I am frequently asked, especially by people who see me in the newsgroups, is why am I so angry all the time? The truth is that I am not all that angry. I think that the reason I am not angry is because I do not leave frustrations bottled up inside of me, I let them right out. That and my passion for my work is often mistook as anger. In person, I can be a real pussycat, sometimes. 

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